


Public Access TV at 4 am

by JayBarou



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Other, Slice of Life, but their lives are weird already, waking up your crush at the crack of down with a prank is rude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26866135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayBarou/pseuds/JayBarou
Summary: White noise wakes up Gerry at 3:59 am.
Relationships: Gerard Keay/Michael | The Distortion
Comments: 3
Kudos: 59





	Public Access TV at 4 am

Gerry had fallen asleep on the sofa. He had his latest acquisition over his face. It had turned out to be not a Leitner, but one of Smirke's latest works. He had (been made to) read it when he was 10; he was only rereading to check for discrepancies. The trip had been exhausting and he had been very bored of the pompous scholar by page 3, and only because the three introduction pages were written by no other than Magnus himself and there was much to read between the lines that he didn’t notice at 10.

He was woken by the static noise. He lifted a bit the cover of the book and saw the TV was on and telling him to call to some sketchy game show. Just a letter and Gerry would be rich. He was tempted to drop the book cover and go back to sleep, but the channel had bad reception and the static noise was annoying him. He dug his elbow on the cushions to rise up and the channel changed on its own. Now a tarot reader was telling some poor sod to risk it all with the ex-wife again. Gerry couldn’t find the remote under the pillows, and he gave up. Sleep was the worst to find things in the semi-darkness.

He stood, approached, and patted around the TV, looking for the switch. There didn’t seem to be one. Modern technologies with their unpractical advances... He got on his knees and put his cheek and shoulder to the wall, contemplating just falling asleep like that.

And as he was there, looking at the dark space behind the TV, waiting for his eyes to adjust after the glare of the screen, reaching to pull the plug from the socket... he realized.

He shouldn’t have needed to see the wire going straight to the wall, no plug or socket. He should have known what was hiding its presence with the white noise. He should have realized he wasn’t in some hotel, hostel or Couchsurfing. This was his flat, and he didn’t own a TV.

He leaned back to peek at the screen. It was an infomercial of a device to put on your socks for you. The words didn't look like English, not even the letters, everyone was unnervingly happy, everything looked anachronic, or garish or unreal or all at the same time... so only slightly worse than your usual 4 am schedule. But Gerry was afraid indeed, because if it kept switching channels there would end up being porn. Gerry didn’t want to think of the Spiral and porn in the same planet, let alone in the same phrase. No spoilers, said a treacherous part of his mind.

Gerry knew cutting the cord would do nothing. He stood, pain on his knees, hand on his lower back, resignation in his soul.

“No offence, but if you come out of a well now I’m going to laugh  _ so  _ hard, and you are going to be  _ so  _ disappointed; it is not worth it.”

Gerry threw himself back on the couch and put the book over his eyes again. He sighed all the air out, preparing to embrace sleep once more; he could stand the white noise if he knew it was just Michael. He huffed, amused to himself, and shared: “Goldilocks coming out of the well to shame the fear-kind.”

“You...” said a familiar, distorted voice. Gerry hid his smile in the book. “Enjoy bulling me.” His smile grew. “Far too much. ... I’ve done nothing for you to treat me like that.”

“What are you doing pestering me at...”He lifted the corner of the book to find a clock and let it drop when he found one. “4 am? Do you need this bully’s help or what?”

“Well...”

“There it is! I knew you’d come out of a  _ well _ tonight.”

Michael took the book, and Gerry felt the fingers especially sharp tonight, about to give him a free nose job. Michael’s face was absolutely unimpressed and a bit disappointed, it was obvious even upside down, in all its incongruous glory. Gerry only could tell because he had experience with that face and was more or less invested in it too.  


“I briefly considered switching alliances for that. The Slaughter came to mind. Then I remembered I couldn’t care less about you.”

“Rotten lia-”

“Flatterer,” it said mock-angry.

Gerry ended up laughing at the fast counter. “Do you really need my help or was this just an unfriendly social call?”

“Yes!” It got its humour back. Mercurial, that one. 

“The wicked you know the rest, then,” he exhaled. He would need so much coffee.

**Author's Note:**

> Kindly brought to you by Day 6 of the Weirdtober prompts! It was going to be something original and then I got GerryMichael brain rot


End file.
